Officials said that multiple tornadoes swept through Mississippi overnight, killing one and injuring nearly two dozen. State emergency workers were still working with counties to assess the damage from storms in which high temperatures and hail in some areas accompanied tornadoes. The death and injuries were reported by officials in eastern Mississippi’s Jasper County, where the small, rural town of Louin bore the brunt of the destruction. Drone footage and photos showed vast expanses of debris-covered terrain, decimated homes, and mangled trees.
A storm surveyor in Rolling Fork assessed damage Saturday morning and said the twister might have been rated EF-4, meaning it was incredibly destructive, compared with the EF-1 or EF-2 ratings that would typically be assigned to the region. He was part of a team of surveyors that fanned out nationwide Saturday to assess the storm damage.
The National Weather Service office in Jackson sent teams this morning to examine the damage and determine whether it may have been caused by more than one tornado. “We’re not sure if it was just one big long tornado that did all the damage or if it lifted and then dropped another one,” said Janae Elkins, a meteorologist with the Weather Service in Jackson.
Elkins said the damage from the tornadoes could be even more extensive than the ones that ripped through the region in 2011. The 2011 Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado was ranked an EF-4 and flattened neighborhoods in that Alabama city, leaving behind a trail of destruction that included many destroyed mobile homes. She added that the weather patterns in this area have been abnormally volatile, allowing solid storms to move quickly and intensify rapidly.
The shattered remnants of the Silver City, Miss., tornado that hit Friday night were like nothing the state had seen before. It wiped out whole blocks of homes, flattened cars, and flipped water towers over. The wind blew down trees and power lines and ripped off roofs from buildings. Residents huddled in bathtubs or broke into a John Deere store that was turned into a triage center for injured residents.
One family that lost everything was the Herndons of Wren, a close-knit community in eastern Mississippi. Among the victims was 1-year-old Riley Herndon, sleeping in her mother’s arms when the twister ripped through the house. Authorities later found her buried under the rubble of the home, but she was unresponsive when they tried to reach her.
The storms moved through the region just ahead of a cold front expected to sweep across the South. President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration early Sunday that will make federal funding available to those who need it. He pledged the full support of his administration in the recovery effort. The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Deanne Criswell, stood with Gov. Tate Reeves and local officials Saturday as they updated the public on the response.
